Negative Interactions with Faculty: Graduate Student Experiences

Over the past few years, there has been increasing interest in the study of the mistreatment of individuals in the workplace. This type of mistreatment, while difficult to define, includes behaviors such as belittling employees publicly, yelling or shouting, and simply ignoring the individual. These behaviors have consequences that are well documented and wide-ranging and include headaches (Bassman, 1992), memory loss (Einarsen, 1999), and even post-traumatic stress disorder (Leymann, 1996). Workplace mistreatment has also been found to have negative effects on worker productivity (Bassman, 1992; Quigley, 1999), and employee turnover (Leymann, 1990). In addition to workplace settings, some psychological mistreatment research has been conducted in educational settings. For instance, researchers have found evidence of medical student abuse (e.g., Baldwin, Daugherty, & Eckenfels, 1990; Silver & Glicken, 1990), as well as law student mistreatment (e.g., Elkins, 1985). It has been suggested that this abuse has various negative effects on students, including decreased levels of self-esteem (Silver, 1982), and increased levels of stress (Silver & Glicken, 1990). While there has been some attention paid to the mistreatment experienced by medical and law students at the hands of faculty, prior to the current study little research has looked into the phenomenon of graduate student abuse. Our preliminary examination of graduate students at Wayne State University begins to fill this research gap by exploring the nature and effects of negative interactions by faculty toward graduate students. Method Students from various academic departments around the university were asked to respond to questions regarding negative incidents with faculty, as well as questions relating to their methods of coping, their possible intentions regarding turnover, and their general health